#Planet Studio
17 messages in this thread
Hope you'll post details of all the interesting stuff for us unable to attend,
Bob <g>.
BILL
Bill:
I just got back to my hotel after an seemingly endless day of activities. The
product exhibits open up this morning (Tues) and there should be a few
surprises which I'll gladly describe. I started my Monday by attending a
semi-worthless course on CD-ROM mastering which concentrated too heavily on
text base documents. I bagged it in favor of some of the wild virtual
reality/3d interactive exhibits in a section of the convention hall named the
EDGE (and I thought that was U2's guitarist). There were some now typical
virtual reality games but a couple virtual reality exhibits unlike any I've
seen so far. One has you lying on a table and you swim and communicate with
dolphins, another has you getting jerked around while lying on your back and
virtually flying through canyons and across open terrain. The one I liked the
best was a holographic table which was about 4' x 6' with a computer image
projected up from below onto a glass table top. With the 3d glasses the images
pop off the table. One display was of a female body (probably one of Paul
Lind's full body babe scans <G>). With a wand you could make all of the
woman's skin fade to transparent. With the glove you could (get this fellas)
rip her heart out, literally. You could put the heart aside and enlage it and
look inside it, etc. without missing a beat. You could also pull her skelleton
apart and rearrange her bones, pretty strange I have to admit. I spent some
time in the 3D CAVES and also viewing the myriad of animations submitted to the
screening room.
Tuesday should be a big day so I'll give you the product update. I'm
anticipating great new stuff from several vendors. One company I'm interested
in seeing is Depthography, Inc. who makes holographic images out of 3D computer
graphics. The Edge had a small display of this technology and the quality was
remarkable.
I'll keep you posted,
Bob
THANKS BOB ! Keep it coming.
BILL
Bill:
Check my message to Paul Lind for more info on R4. I somehow did not get to
see Gary's message so I don't know if I just regurgitated his announcement. Let
me know.
Anyway, more cool stuff has been announced:
Schrieber has been showing off 'Puppeteer' a CD with software which will
generate and read motion capture data into 3DS. It also includes a bunch of
data files of captured motions.
Jack Powell was having some fun playing with a new IPAS called Metareyes V1.0.
Reyes-De Espona Infografica of Spain surprised all by showing up at SIGGRAPH
with a new METABALL modeller for 3DS. Price – $495.00 US For info fax them in
Spain at 34-1-3105208.
I have no printed material but DPS demo-ed for me the new PC PAR interface. It
is WINDOWS based and has all features enabled from the previous version.
(Previously Ping-Pong and others were not available.) The most memorable of
the new features was the ability to use Media Player to start both a PAR
animation and a sound file at the same time for synchronized playback. I'm
going back tomorrow with a pad and pen to take notes on other enhancements.
Digimation has a new IPAS called Bones which is billed as a skeletal
deformation routine.
XAOS Tools is going to be putting out an R4 compatible IPAS (so far it is
nameless) which will be available thru Video Post. The routine will offer an
"animatable brushing engine" which will automatically apply brush strokes to
images and frames. Price $995 and will be available in October.
Talk to you later,
Bob
Thanks for the info. I hope details of these IPAS routines will be
posted here soon. (but I expect we will have to wait until siggraph is over
before the companies have time). Ugh. I hate waiting…
David
Robert,
The XAOS IPAS for 3D Studio's Video Post is NOT nameless. It's always
been called RAPTURE, and the naming is consistent with their other prodcuts.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
FYI, the XAOS product is *_code named_* Rapture, the release will be called
something else yet to be determined.
BILL
Bill,
Aren't we allowed to call it Pennello? I have the brochure from XAOS. Some
other product had the name rapture or raptor so they changed it.
Kurt
<< Aren't we allowed to call it Pennello? >>
I'm not sure I understand you're question, but that's the first time I've heard
the new name myself. I just wanted to point out to Kevin that Rapture was
changed to the code name for the beta, due to trademark/name disputes.
Pennello, huh ? What's that mean anyway ?
BILL
Bill,
Just got back today. I haven't read any new threads yet but in case you haven't
heard that the new name is Xaos/tools Pennello. Available October. What a
show!
Kurt
Thanks Kurt, wish I could have been there.
BILL
Bill,
Well, XAOS had *intended* to call it Rapture. I can understand the
problem if the name is not legally available though.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Kevin,
They did change the name to Pennello. It was printed very nicely on the new
slick.
Kurt
Bill:
The XOAS program will be renamed Pennello at release. That's what it's being
called now in the Autodesk Booth.
David
CADalyst
Thanks for the update, Bob! I'm really jealous. Next year. Next year. Next
year. <my new mantra!>
Dave
Great stuff, Bob.
Keep the details coming for all of us sitting around wishing we were there.
Alec Jason